Eating Ashes
by Saiyaness28
Summary: In order to save her sister's life, Crina must seek out the aid of a professional vampire hunter named Dorin Dimir. However, Dorin may be just as dangerous as the monster he was hired to kill.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: Prologue

**1820, Romania**

Violca tied her raven curls back with a black ribbon as the moon rose to take it's place in the Romanian night sky above the gypsy camp. Dipping her quill back into the little jar of ink, she continued scribbling out her thoughts. Thoughts that mainly revolved around a certain man. A tall man with wavy black hair that shone with a brownish tint in firelight. A man with ebony eyes that seemed to burn at her like smoldering coals in a fire pit. A man who held her heart in his firm, icy grip. A man she knew simply as Emil. She wrote of how much she loved and …loathed him. She had given him everything she had to give, but it had all been a lie. A lie from the very start. He didn't love her. He didn't even care about her. She was merely his prey, and she'd fallen easily for the seductive predator's trap.

Violca sighed heavily and laid down the quill at the shrill cries of her infant son. She rose from her chair and glided over to the cradle. "Poor child." She cooed. "I know. Your mother should be paying more attention to you, instead of writing about her silly misfortunes of love." She lifted the wailing baby boy out of the cradle and began to bounce him around in her arms. "Shush now, love. No more crying." She smirked as she gazed lovingly into her son's large, dark eyes.

His birth had been terribly difficult. The labor was long and she had feared that the baby wouldn't come. He had been a large baby. But even after all the pain she had endured, both through childbirth and the circumstances surrounding his father, she loved him unconditionally. She never knew that she could love something so much. She thought that he was the most beautiful baby she'd ever seen, but don't all mother's feel that way about their children?

A pounding at the side of the wagon made the young mother jump in surprise. "W-who is it?" She asked, whirling around to stare daggers into the heavy blanket that served as a door.

"Violca." Called the suave voice at the blanket covered end of the wagon. "It is I. Let me in, my love."

Violca felt a chill sweep down her spine. "Emil?" She squeaked, her grip on the baby tightening in dread. No! How? How could he be here? How had he found her?

"Hurry, dear one. It is cold out here." He chuckled. Violca knew too well that he was not cold. He couldn't feel the air anymore, and he hadn't for a very long time.

She looked down at the little bundle in her arms and a new kind of fear took root in her heart and soul. If he saw that he had fathered a child she knew that he would kill them both. She must hide the baby! "Just a moment." She replied, scrambling around for a good hiding place. After disregarding several places, she finally settled on a wooden chest, filled with blankets and cloth. It would make a good bed for him and the thick wood would muffle any sounds that the baby made. She tenderly laid the baby inside and wrapped it in a wool blanket. Finally she took a couple of cloves of garlic from her mother's cooking supplies and laid them next to her son. The smell of it would keep Emil from catching his son's scent. Well…she hoped it would anyway. Carefully, she closed the lid, entrapping the helpless child in a cocoon, shielding it from whatever harm his father may wish to bring to them, this night.

Loosening her hair from it's ribbon and smoothing out her dress, she walked slowly to the back of the wagon and pulled away the blanket. Behind it stood the handsome Emil. He still looked exactly the same as the last time she'd seen him. He hadn't even grown any facial hair. Not that she had suspected that he would look any different, not since she learned the truth behind his identity.

"Hello, Violca. You are looking well." He said smoothly with a charming smile.

"Emil. How wonderful it is to see you." She smiled politely. "It has been too long."

"It has." His eyes sharpened as they flittered over her small frame. "I have to admit, I am surprised by how healthy you look." He said as he stepped up the small ladder into the wagon. Violca took several steps back to keep her distance from him. She was careful to make sure that she placed herself in-between Emil and the chest.

"Why is that?" She asked, praying that he didn't notice how nervous she was at his presence.

Emil looked around the tiny wagon, which served as the family's home in their nomadic life style. "I have heard rumors that you have recently given birth. To a son, I was told." His eyes glinted sinisterly. "I see you have a cradle. So I take it the rumors were true."

Damn! Violca inwardly cursed. Why hadn't she thought to hide it? She scrambled to think up a good excuse. "I-I did have a baby, Emil, but I'm afraid that it was still-born. I am sorry." She muttered in a sweet, sympathetic voice. "But our child is dead."

"Is that so." Emil said calmly, reaching out a hand to touch one of Violca's curls. She took another step back and hit her backside against the edge of her desk. "I am deeply grieved to hear that, my pet. Very grieved indeed." With a hiss, he rammed his hand straight through Violca's middle. She slid down his arm, allowing his hand to protrude entirely. Violca gasped and moaned in agony as blood poured from her wound and out her mouth and nose. Emil held her close to him, in a hypocritical lover's embrace. "I was looking forward to slaughtering him in front of you." He whispered with an inhuman cackle. With a quick gesture, he slung her off of his arm and she flew across the small space to hit the wall of the wagon. She crumpled in a bloody heap on the floor in front of the chest.

She turned her head weakly to glare up at him. He stood above her, licking her blood from his fingers, with a gleeful look in his dark eyes. "It really is a shame you had to get pregnant. I hate to waist such delicious blood, but I can't let anyone find out that I fathered a child. You understand?" He shrugged his broad shoulders and smiled crookedly down at her. His sharp canines glinted in the dim light.

_I hate you! I hate you! _She screamed inside her head at him, unable to speak. How had she ever fallen in love with this monster to begin with? There was nothing there to love. He had no heart. No soul.

He picked up Violca's favorite dress from it's resting place by her cot and wiped the gore from his hand as if it were a handkerchief. "Farewell, my love." He sneered, as he walked away towards the back of the wagon. "Have a pleasant night in hell." He laughed at his tasteless joke as he left the wagon.

Violca laid there a few more moments, listening to his evil laughter as it slowly faded with distance. Then, relying on all the strength that she still possessed, she dragged herself to the trunk and draped her battered body over it, protectively. As she wrapped her arms around the wooden chest, she began to sob quietly, for she knew that this would be the closest she'd ever be again to holding her son in her arms.

Slowly the fire of life eased into nothingness within the mother's body and her spirit left her, leaving her child alone in the world, a world that he could never truly belong to.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Illness

**1848, Romania **

Crina stroked Adela's dark hair. It was sweaty and stringy in her hands. She laid her other hand on her sister's forehead. The fever was worsening. Her skin was like fire at the touch. Crina bit her lip in worry. It pained her to see Adela like this. So frail. So tormented. All energy had left her. She was deathly pail and her eyes were encircled with shadows so dark they looked like bruises. She hadn't eaten in days. The best they could do was force a little water down her throat with a funnel, a task that Crina found horribly cruel and barbaric. The fever had ravaged Adela's body and mind to the point that she was seeing things: bugs crawling under her skin, snakes writhing between her bed sheets, wolves watching her through the windows, and shadows without owners dancing across the walls. "Crina. Crina." Adela mumbled, her head flopping from side to side.

"Shhhh." Crina soothed. "I am here." She went to the water basin and dipped a cloth into the water. She rung it out and patted Adela's forehead, cooling it down a little with the icy water. She sat down at the edge of the bed and continued to wipe the cloth across Adela's gaunt face. _She was always so beautiful._ She thought sadly. _Now she looks like death itself. If only we knew the cause of this illness. If only there were a cure._

Suddenly Adela jolted upright and scrambled away from her, kicking away the sheets with her legs fiercely in an attempt to get away from something. "He's back! Dear god! He's back!" She screamed, her eyes wide and bouncing back and forth as she stared towards the window.

"Calm down, Adela!" Crina pleaded, grabbing hold of her sister's arms.

Panicked, Adela flung her arms every which way, knocking Crina in the face with her elbow in the process.

Crina yelped in pain as she staggered backwards. She touched her lip tenderly. Beneath her fingertips she found the warm wetness of blood. "Sister, you must calm down!" She yelled forcefully, trying to get some sense through the fog of madness that surrounded her elder sister.

"No! No!" Adela hissed. She snatched up a vase of flowers from the bedside table and hurled it towards the window. The vase shattered into several pieces and water and the destroyed remains of roses fell to the floor. "No more!" She screamed.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Asked Crina, easing timidly towards the madwoman. "No more what? Who are you talking to?"

"The man." She said. "He comes to me when no one is around. He hurts me. He takes …something from me…makes me sick." She pointed a quivering finger towards the window. "He's there now! Don't you see him? He's laughing at me!"

Crina looked at the window and saw no one, only the swaying shadows of the barren trees moving eerily across the lawn. "There's no one there, sweetheart." She said softly, touching Adela's arm.

At this Adela began to laugh hysterically, her green eyes rolling wildly in her head. "He is there. He is. You don't see him, but I do. I do." She muttered.

"Oh for heaven's sake. Crina, get Adela back into bed." Their mother scolded as she and their father, followed by the stern faced doctor, bustled into the room.

"I am trying mother. She had another of her fits." Crina explained.

Adela shot her a hateful glare. "A fit? Is that what you call it now?" Her eyes seemed so sharp they could break her skin with a gaze. "You think I've lost my mind don't you?" Her lips quirked in one corner as the bitterness in her eyes intensified. "Sister dear? She added, scornfully.

"Of course not, Adela. You are very sick. You're just hallucinating from the fever. That doesn't make you mad." Said Crina, her mint green eyes full of sympathy and worry.

Adela only laughed that odd, sickening laughter of a woman who's mind was no longer well.

Mrs. Korzha scurried over to her children and guided her eldest back to bed.

Adela stared at her sister balefully as she was tucked back into her bed.

Crina swallowed hard as their eyes met. _Why is she looking at me that way, like she wants to kill me? She wouldn't do that! Would she?_

Nearly as soon as her head hit the pillow, Adela closed her eyes and eased into a restless sleep.

"I take it that her condition has not improved." Sighed the doctor. He took a stethoscope out of his bag and began listening to her heart.

"No, doctor. In fact, it has only worsened. She's nearly lost her senses completely." Explained Mrs. Korzha, wringing her fingers nervously.

"I see." The doctor muttered.

"I just don't understand." Mr. Korzha huffed in exasperation, crossing his arms over his chest angrily. "She was perfectly fine the night before this all started, a month ago. She was healthy, happy, and…sane. Now look at her! She has this illness that seems to have no cause, no symptoms besides weakness and fever, and she's seeing and hearing things. Doctor! You must do something!"

"Hmmm" The doctor murmured as he gently turned Adela's head and touched the curve of her slender neck. "Did you all notice these wounds?" He asked, stroking his short white beard.

The family edged closer and bent to see the two small puncture wounds at the base of Adela's neck. The wounds were an irritated red, like an overly scratched mosquito bite. They looked deep, yet they were not bleeding and they were fresh enough that they were not scabbed over.

Crina's eyes widened. She had heard of such a thing before. She'd heard the whispers of the other village people. Whispers of a demonic, blood thirsty creature, a reanimated corpse that fed off of the blood and life force of the living to survive. The vampire. "W-what does this mean?" She gasped, her insides shuttering sickeningly.

"Do you think she hurt herself?" Asked Mrs. Korzha.

The doctor took off his spectacles and turned his head to look at them. "Do you want my honest opinion?" He inquired, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

Everyone nodded.

"Please sir. If you have any idea of what may be causing this illness, any idea at all, let us hear it." Crina pleaded.

The old man cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief. "As a doctor, I am a man of science. I should not believe in old folk tales and superstitions, but I have seen too much in my thirty plus years of practice, not to entertain the grander possibilities." His brown eyes met with Crina's green ones. "I believe that your sister has fallen prey to a vampire, Ms. Korzha. He's singled her out and now she has become his prey." He looked around the room in dark wonder. "No doubt he sneaks into this room unseen and feeds from her as she sleeps. The continuous loss of blood has made her ill, and perhaps seeing the beast has driven her to madness."

"What do you suggest we do?" Asked Mr. Korzha. Crina was surprised by his willingness to hear what the doctor had to say. He'd never been one to believe in things he couldn't touch or see.

"Usually, I would suggest hanging garlic around her bed, but I very much doubt that this tactic will stop the beast for very long. They do not like the smell of garlic, but it will not kill them. Doing so would only make him angry and then you and your neighbors would be in danger. No, you must have him destroyed if you are to have peace in the long term." The doctor reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a scrap of wrinkled and yellowed parchment. He handed the paper to Crina, who was standing closest to him. "I have written on that note, the name and probable location of a professional vampire hunter. His name is Dorin Dimir. I've worked with him before. He's very skilled at what he does." He paused a moment to clean his spectacles with his handkerchief. "However, I should warn you that Mr. Dimir is not a…normal man. He's what they call a Dhampir, the son of a mortal woman and a vampire father. In some ways he may be just as dangerous as the monster that is attacking Adela."

Crina gave her parents a questioning look. They didn't look too thrilled with the idea of inviting a half-demon man into their house.

"Is it really necessary to hire this Mr. Dimir? There are a few men in the village who claim they can destroy vampires." She inquired, tightening her grip on the note in her hand.

The doctor threw back his head in a hearty laugh. "Those fools? I wouldn't hire those lot if I were you. You'd just be wasting your money. The only way a mortal can kill a vampire is if they drive a stake through it's heart while it lies dormant in it's grave. However, you don't know who this vampire was, so there is no way to know who's grave you'd have to defile. You can't go around disturbing the dead for no reason. You'll end up stirring up things best left sleeping. Things that are worse than any vampire. I'm afraid that the most logical thing you can do is hire a Dhampir, as horrible as that sounds. A Dhampir has incredible strength and can heal quickly. Best of all, they are able to sense vampires and see them even when they've made themselves invisible to humans. The only real problem is that they need blood to keep up their strength, but a butchered cow or a sheep will be enough to keep him satisfied."

"Thank you Doctor Maze. We will take your advice into consideration." Said Crina's father. "Crina, why don't you escort the good doctor to the door."

"Yes, Father. Come with me, sir." Said Crina.

She led the aging man out of the room and down the short hallway towards the door. They had a very small home.

"Thank you for your help, Sir. I will try to persuade my parents to hire Mr. Dimir." She said, opening the door for him.

He started to leave but turned around abruptly, as if just remembering something important. "Ah, one more thing child. As I said earlier, I have worked with Dorin Dimir before on another case. I got to know him pretty well. He is a …odd character." He added with a slight raise of his right eye brow.

"More odd than being half vampire?" Crina scoffed.

"Well he takes his job very seriously and has a bit of an obsession with one vampire in particular. Someone named Emil. I'm not sure how they know each other. If given the opportunity to find this vampire, he will abandon his current job. So, you must make it worth his while."

"How much is he going to charge us?" Crina gasped. It would be awful if they weren't able to afford the help Adela needed. "We don't have a lot of money." She gestured to her humble surroundings.

"You are in luck there. Dorin prefers favors to actual money. Things like supplies, meals, and board."

"Oh well, we can do that. That won't be any problem at all."

"Yes but, I would be careful what you promise him." The doctor's eyes darkened. "If you promise something beyond your means, he will still find a way to collect his dues in some way or another. You know the tale of the Piper don't you?"

Crina nodded. She was familiar with the old fairy tale and she always thought that it was rather disturbing. A town, over run by rats, hired a piper to lead the rats away, but they refused to pay him the amount he was promised, so instead, the piper led away all the children, never to be seen again. A shock of cold jolted through Crina's guts as she watched the doctor walk away. What kinds of things would he do to them for payment?


End file.
